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DESTINY OF Ti 



A 'BISCOUeSE DEL.IVEH.EJ:> JOL.Y I-v 



BY 



mmm ib« lEEiircfED, 



"WmV^t t>i t&e Fjree BPresbyteriau Charch af N«w CtM^s 



NEW CASTLE: 

W. IP, CLA.RK' 8 STKAM TPOW1EPIS&15 9S 
•1855,. 



Ij)&kii2L ii : 44. — " And in the days of these Bangs shall the God of Hoa- 
■»eii set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed ; and the kingdom shall 
jiol be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these 
jkaagdoms, and it shall stand forever. " 

The subject of prophecy is one of the most interesting and 
<aangerou3, in the whole cyclopsedia of knowledge. It is in- 
teresting, because it covers the past, which is the domain of 
Jaistory — the present, which is the subject of speculation; and 
1^% future, which is the region of conjecture. In its bearings 
upon the time to come, it is an ocean not yet explored ; and, 
imaginative, theoretical and unstable minds, which are the 
class that usually set sail upon it, are apt to neglect their com- 
jpass and chart ; and therefore, suffer shipwreck. Edward Ir- 
TiDg, one of the most brilliant men that Scotland ever pro- 
4Mced, lost his reason upon this topic. A man, however, of 
fcecoming modesty and well balanced mind, is comparatively 
safe in the company of the prophet Daniel. He is called by 
Krriters on this subject, " the chronological prophet ; " because, 
in a most remarkable manner, he deals in dates, which furnish 
flata for calculations. Up to the time of Julius Csesar, who 
reformed the calendar, the science of chronology was extreme* 
\j disjointed. Scholars even differed to the amount of many 
years, in their calculations as to the age of the world, at the 
period of the advent of Jesus Christ. From this fact alone^ 
it may be judged, how unwarrantable and presumptuous are 
those expounders of prophecy, who venture to announce the 
dates of great events positively. They have not only made 
Jtenants for the Insane Asylums, by their erroneous theories 
and miscalculations ; but what is worse, they have unsettled 
the faith of thousands, in the Divine origin and Inspiration of 
the Scriptures. 

In the present discourse, I propose to keep on the outskirts 
of the field of prophecy ; and by safe observations, strive to 
ascertain %vhere we are, and loliat is lefore us. 

T^^ Image, ia the vision of Nebrichadnezzar, ag interpreted 



hj Daniel, was a symbol of despotism. The period of time 
embraced in the vision, extends from the Babylonian monar- 
chy founded by Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, down to 
ibe final consummation of all things ; and the history of the 
Bations adumbrated in the image, is thus far the history of the 
■sforld. It is conceded by all writers on the subject, that the 
"head of gold, " represented the Assyrio-Babylonian Empire. 
The "breast and arms of silver, " shadowed forth the Medo- 
Persian power, whose armies under the command of Cyrus, 
marched down the bed of the Euphrates, through the gates of 
the city, and made a conquest of Babylon. The " belly and 
thighs of brass," represented the " brazen-coated Greeks, " 
as they were called in the days of Homer ; who, under their 
great Captain, Alexander, overran the world, and caused the 
Medo-Persian Empire, to yield to the Macedonian. "The 
legs of iron, and the feet, part of iron and part of clay, " 
strikingly shadowed forth the Roman power, in its origin, and 
its chief characteristic in the time of its strength. This pow- 
er conquered the Greeks in their turn ; and you may see the 
«xtent of its empire at the beginning of the Christian Era, by 
consulting the map. It extended from the British Isles on the 
North, to beyond the southern limits of the Mediterranean oa 
the South ; and from the shores of Western Europe, across 
the continent to the Black and Caspian Seas. 

This then is the image. I have said that it was a symboli- 
cal representation of despotism — the government of men, not 
by law, which is the expression of the will of God, but by brute 
force. The rights of humanity are two fold — civil and reli" 
^ous. These are called natural rights, because they apper- 
tain to man, as man, and are conferred on him, not by govern- 
ments, but by his Creator. They have not only a common 
erigin, but they must live together, and die together, and lie ia 
the same grave. Now despotism, naturally and necessarily 
makes war upon all the rights of Humanity. A despot is a 
Mian, who by fraud and force, practices the great lie, that 
Kings rule by the grace, instead of the wrath of God. His 
Tffill is the rule of action for his subject?, and extends to their 
religious, as well as civil rights. He, himself, is subject to no 
law, human or divine, written or unwritten. Despotism is the 
foe also, of the righta of God, as well as the rights of man, 
Fcr God who made man, and made him free, is eatitled to th© 



homage of his heart, and the service of his life. But both these 
are usurped by despotism. It is therefore a diabolical power 
upon earth. It wars against the crown rights of the King of 
Kings and Lord of Lords, and although for wise reasons it has 
been suffered to exist for so long a time, every attribute of the 
Godhead is pledged to its entire destruction. History teaches 
ms, that under the four universal monarchies, man enjoyed al- 
most no rights vvhatever. The monarch not only enslaved the 
bodies of the people, but as Pontifex Maximus, shaped the na- 
tional religion, and subjugated the national conscience. So 
that the history of civilization, is nothing but an account of 
the long and 'successful struggles of ^mankind against the ty- 
ranny of their rulers. 

But let us return to the Image. " Thou sawest till that a 
Stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon 
his feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. 
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold, 
broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the 
summer threshing floor ; and the wind carried them away, that 
no place was found for them : and the stone that smote the 
image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. " 
These verses, so pregnant with meaning, are explained by the 
prophet in the words of the text. " And in the days of these 
kings, shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall 
never be destroyed : and the kingdom shall not be left to other 
people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these king- 
doms, and it shall stand forever. " Now in tracing the history 
of the fourth, or Roman power, we find, that nearly 2000 years 
ago, it was divided into the ten kingdoms represented by the 
ten toes of the image ; and in process of time, subdivided into 
the kingdoms that now cover the map of Europe, and compose 
in part the old Roman empire. The image, therefore, symboli- 
cally, is still standing ; and the momentous catastrophe con- 
tained in the text, is still future I 

Here let us pause for a moment, and endeavor to realize where 
jiQ tire, A Ycy;:g3 of 14 days only^ separates us from the land 
"which will be the scene of the most tremendous series ©f convul- 
sions that ever shook the globe. The thrones of Europe will be 
smitten by the Little Stone, and ground together till they become 
like dust on the summer threshing floor. As the advent of the 
JSayior wasprecedeu by a -syidc spread and anxious expectation of 



his coming, so the advent of civil and religious liberty, is herald- 
ed by the hopes and expectations of a suiiering world. Eu- 
rope presents at this time to the eye of the student of prophe- 
cy, an aspect of overwhelming interest — an enigma which n® 
man can solve, who has not read the programme of events, as 
given by the prophet Daniel. Tyranny has triumphed over 
the people in France, and the Republic of 1848 has been met- 
amorphosed by a Usurper, into a despotism. Liberty has 
been stifled in Italy ; and supported by the bayonets of Frencli 
soldiery, the Vatican once more thunders in the ears of the 
world! The Romish Priesthood, with unprecedented unanim- 
ity, has adopted the Jesuit doctrine of the Immaculate Concep- 
tion, and takes its position on the field of conflict under the pa- 
tronage of Loyola! England has been forced by circumstan- 
ces, into an unnatural alliance with her old enemy, to resist 
the encroachments of Russia upon the Turkish Empire! Tens 
of thousands of French and English soldiers, are perishing in 
the Crimea, in a war for what ? Yes, echo answers, for what? 
whether the millinery which decks the holy places at Jerusa- 
lem, shall come from Paris or St. Petersburg ! Thus while 
thc'battle of the Kings is going on before the walls of Sebas- 
topol, the people of the nations are beginning to enquire into 
the expense and consequences of these things. The revolu- 
tionary fires are being kindled anew; and the revolutionary 
cauldron, begins to boil. The people begin to think, that as 
the crowned heads have inaugurated " the beginning of the 
end ; " they themselves will attend to its ultimate results. 
Had the bullet of Pianori, struck the target at which it yra^ 
aimed, France would this day be a Republic again ; for all 
agree that the Empire cannot survive the Emperor. In Eng- 
land, deep, wide-spread dissatisfaction reigns — with the Aris- 
tocracy, which has put her armies, in prison, before the walls 
of Sebastopol — with her established church, which is sucking 
the life's blood out of the heart of her people — and with a Gov- 
ernment, which is squandering life and money so lavishly, In. 
the vain attempt to cripple the power of the Autocrat. While 
as christians, we can feel no interest in the war now waging ; 
yet as Americans, we sympathise with England in her blunder 
and her embarrassment. She is our mother country. From 
her we have derived our language — our literature — our laws, 
and the Protestant religion. Since the fall of the House •£ 



Stuart, her monarchy has become limited ; and her GoverOi- 
ment, constitutional and popular — and she is fast drifting tQ 
the form, as she has the essential elements, of Republicanism* 
Although, therefore, she is a part of the Image, and at war 
with the authority of the Little Stone, we cling to the hope^ 
that she will yet do justice to Ireland — throw away her tinsel- 
led monarchy and hereditary nobility, and church establish- 
ment ; and by thus uniting the hands and hearts of her popu- 
lation, and securing the approbation of Heaven, be prepared 
to lead the hosts of the European people, into the grand strug- 
gle for Liberty, 

But you ask with emotion, when shall these things be, and 
what shall be the sign of their coming ? I reply, they will 
take place at the expiration of the " time times and half a, 
time, " or 1260 years spoken of by Daniel and John. If we 
knew positively when this prophetical period began, the pro- 
blem could be solved. But the chronological difificulties al- 
ready alluded to, embarrass us. If it began with the exalta- 
tion of the Papacy, when Phocas the Emperor pronounced 
Boniface III. to be universal Bishop, as is the generally re- 
ceived opinion, then the time will expire in 1866. And sure- 
ly the signs of the times justify us in hoping, that the close of 
this period approaches. The inventive and enterprizing spirit 
of the age — girdling the world with Rail Roads and Tele- 
graphic wires — destroying distance altogether, and calculating 
travel by time instead — the complete resurrection of mind 
from the long sleep of many generations, calling to the bar of 
judgment, the opinions of the present and the past, and sub- 
jecting them to the test of a new analysis — the great reform- 
atory efforts which individualize Man^ and look after all Ma 
personal interests in particular, thus giving the world the first 
fruits of the great doctrine of the Bible, and the Protestant 
Reformation — the right of private judgment. All these cir- 
cumstances, and more that might be mentioned, are the streaks 
in the East that betoken the dawn of the glorious day ! They 
are the precursors of that terrible battle, which must be fought^ 
and which will give victory to God and Humanity, over all 
the powers of Earth and Hell. Let no man's heart fail, whea 
he sees the present condition of things in Europe, The dark- 
est hour in all the night is the one just before daylight. Never 
since there was a throne in Europe, has despotism been xom^ 



Biiiacertain in its existence than at present. Its seeming graia- 
dmr and glory, and its presumption and arrogance, are lik« 
tke hectic flush on the cheek of the consumptive. They are^ 
not the glow of health. They are the evidence of a deep 
seated and fatal disease, and the harbinger of approaching 
djssolation. Nearly 2000 years ago, the Image received the 
first blow from the Little Stone, and it has reeled under it*. 
inSuence ever since. But despotisms die hard, and therefore 
it is accessary to speed the work of destruction, for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand ! 

But we must now enquire for the interpretation of "the; 
$tone eu,t out of the mountain without handsy which smote fhe-t 
Image and ground it to powder." And here happily, iha 
Prophet gives us no room to doubt. The Little Stone, is the, 
Kbgdom set up by God himself in the world, and destined,. 
as it was commissioned, to break in pieces and consume all 
these kingdoms of the image, and then to fill the whole eartk 
itself. It was a striking symbol of the Christian Religion 
•whicjii originated in obscurity, and made its way against the 
heathen power and philosophy of the Roman Empire, by the 
mstramentality of a handful of illiterate fishermen — thusi; 
proving itself to be the "wisdom of God and the power of 
<lod " to every one that believeth. 

Yoyi will observe my brethren; that I understand the Little 
B$t3E6 to mean Christianity., not the Church. There is %, 
mighty difference between the terms. Christianity is the sva- 
tem of doctrines and duties inculcated by Jesus Christ — founisf 
m Ms word, and illustrated in the holy lives of his followers, 
Th& "-' Church, " in common parlance, is the visible organiza- 
taosij composed of persons who profess to believe these doc- 
trmta and perform these duties. The church is the huU^ and 
eJiristianity is the kernel. Now the proper place naturally for 
ih& kernel, is inside the hull ; and Christianity ought always 
to fee found by inquirers, within the precincts of the church.. 
But history teaches us the melancholy truth, that oftentimes 
ihQ *« Church " has made war upon Christianity, and driven it; 
iram her bosom to the caves and dens of the earth. And i*. 
is a curious and instructive fact, that jast as Christianity be* 
comes unpopular, and is banished into exile with its adherents,, 
t^ churchianity " becomes popular ; and " the sin of schisraj"^ 
-u )£ h called, takes its place at the head of the catalogue oE 



10 

crimee. It is no sin for the majority, to bring damnable doc- 
trines and practices into the church, and have them sanctioa- 
cd by her courts. But if a minority who remain faithful Ito 
God, to truth and their own consciences ; obey the law of ne- 
cessity and " withdraw from those who walk disorderly, " they 
are branded as fanatics, schismatics, and troublers of Israel, 
During the dark ages, when Doctor Alphebetarius flourished, 
and Rome was a witche's cauldron of seething corruption ; an^ 
Christianity had escaped from her polluting touch, to the moun- 
tains of Switzerland — the chief crime charged against every 
Reformer who arose to call the church to repentance, wa», 
that he was a schismatic, and a disturber of the peace of the 
church. Let it never then be effaced from our memories, that 
Christ himself has given us the proper definition of the term 
** ChurcJu' He does not say it is a body of men professing 
the christian faith, and served by those who have been ordain- 
ed by the regular successors of the Apostles — or by the laying 
on of the hands of the Presbytery. But, " wherever two or 
three are met together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them." Such were the churches to which John Knox and 
William Farell preached and administered the ordinances ; 
although they themselves never received ordination at the 
hands of P»pe, Prelate, or Presbytery, Such were the church- 
es to which the Seceding Ministers of the church of Scot- 
land preached, after the General Assembly had performed 
the farce of deposing them from the ministry, and depriving 
them of all official authority. We smile at the solemn non- 
sense of a Protestant church, imitating the thunders of the 
"Vatican in censuring men for "leaving the church," because 
they love ckrhtianity better than "ckurchianiti/. " I bless 
<jrod, as our fathers did, that the right to preach Christ, and 
him crucified, to orgjinize churches and dispense the sacra- 
me»ts to the blood-bought people of God, comes from no Pres- 
bytery, M' Pope, no Prelate, no Conference, no Association or 
Consociation, but from Almighty God himself — and, that when 
the channel through which the streams of grace ought to flow 
to a guilty world, corrupts the waters by its own filthiness, 
we can go back to the fountain itself. 

If we are satisfied then, that the Fifth Power called tha 
Little Stone, is Christianity in its bearings upon the cause of 
human liberty, we are prepared to take the next step, and in- 



51 

quire into the nature of that influence it is destined to exert 
upon the image, which now represents the thrones and domin- 
ions of Europe. Is it a moral and persuasive influence alone ? 
or is it a moral influence causing itself to be felt hy physical 
power ? This is an important question. From the language 
cf the Prophet, the Little Stone is clearly belligerent. It smote 
the Image and ground it to powder^ and then took for itself 
ihe throne of universal empire. 

Now, according to the obvious teaching of the Prophet, we 
claim in behalf of Christianity, that kindling up the love of 
liberty on the altar of every man's heart — enlightening hia 
mind in the knowledge of appropriate means to be used — nerv- 
ing his arm for the attainment of the great object ; and com- 
bining his efforts, with those of all othera who have similar de- 
sires, it ia destined to depose every monarch, overthrow every 
throne, and crush every despotism on Earth ! Christianity, or 
the religion of the Son of God, does not declare war against 
nations ; for nations are composed of the people; but against 
the principles of despotism embodied in the governments of 
nations, and shadowed forth in their policy. 

If it be alleged, as it is by a large and respectable class of 
people, that the lleligion of Christ is utterly opposed to all 
war, offensive and defensive ; and that it requires its professors 
to practice the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resist- 
ance, then I reply : A nation is nothing but the aggregate of 
its individuals ; and the rights and duties of nations may be 
learned by ascertaining those of individuals. It is conceded 
then, that every man born, comes into the world clothed by 
liis Creator, with a set of rights called inalienable. The en- 
joyment of these, is necessary to secure his individuality and 
his accountability for his actions ; and he can no more ac- 
(feomplish the end of his moral being without thera, than he 
<H)uld subserve the purpose of his physical being, without 
Stomach, or lungs, or brain. Hence they are called inaliena- 
ble — that is, no man has any right to Sake them away, with- 
out forfeiture on his part ; and he has no right to give them 
up. Duty to ourselves and to God, requires that we be free. 
Bmfc in case these rights are invaded by fraud and vio- 
l-ence, v*'hat then is duty ? I reply, if there is no likelihood 
of succeeding in the effort to regain them, it might be wisdom 
m the sufferer to endure the outrage like a martyr, until death 



12 

^ave release. But if there is a probability that sucii aa ef- 
Sbrt would be successful, then the sufferer may achieve Ms 
:;rilghts and do execution upon the aggressor, who by his wick- 
ed invasion of his brother's rights, has forfeited his own.. We 
«can come to no other conclusion than this, if our premises be 
icorrect. The doctrine of non-resistance demands the entire 
relinquishment of the doctrine of inalienable rights, and of 
•each man's individuality and accountability to God for Ms 
^^ctions. 

Then, what is true of an individual, is true of a natiom of 
jiidividuals. A nation may be so oppressed by its rulers, that 
tiie people cannot enjoy those rights necessary to the aceom- 
^jHshment of the end for which God made them. In that case 
when all other means prove unavailing, it may rise in ita de- 
fence, and throw off the power that crushes it. I aduiit that 
the wars which constitute the chief history of our race have, 
with few exceptions, been humiliating exemplifications of the 
•iiiiabolism in the human character. The terrible resort to car- 
nal weapons would be uncalled for, if the principles of the 
^christian religion could be allowed to shape the policy of na- 
tions. This religion when announced to the world, amidst the 
©cclamations of angels, proclaimed " glory to God in the high- 
est, and on earth peace and good will to men." And if the 
leaven of these benign principles qualified the characters of 
those who rule the world, the nations might destroy their ar- 
aaies and learn war no more. But we must take the world as 
3t is ; and if the people, for the protection of whose rights 
«CEvil government was ordained of God, have no other possible 
way of securing those rights but by the sword, let them take it. 

But it is claimed that mild expostulation and long forbear- 
Mice, and a disposition to yield up everything, will at length 
Koften the heart of the oppressor, so that he will let the op- 
pressed go free. I admit, that a manly heart would scorn to 
turn a deaf ear to the helpless suppliant, and trample down 
ithe weak and defenceless. But does such a heart throb in the 
isosom of this worlds despots ? How long must Hungary kneel 
*nd plead, before the heart of Francis Joseph will be soften- 
ed ? How many ages of weeping and expostulation wonld in- 
^nace the despots, who partitioned Poland among themselves^, 
J© give her back her nationality and her place among the na- 
^ms of Europe ? What effect had the earnest entreaties of 



13 

Moses and Aaron upon the heart of Pharaoh ? Despots are 
like corporations, they have no souls, no sympathy, no sense 
of Justice. The man who allows himself to be placed in such 
a position, becomes a monster by his own leave, and is thus to 
he treated by Humanity in the day of its power. He deserves 
the fate which Agag met at the hands of Samuel, — he should 
te hewed in pieces before the Lord ! Talk of entreaty and 
expostulation softening the feelings of the tyrant, whose heart 
lias become like flint, by the possession and exercise of arbi- 
trary power ! Give us one instance, in the whole history of the 
race, where the groans and tears of an oppressed people, ever 
induced the oppressor to lift his heel from their necks. Could 
tears of blood, melt the adamantine heart of Haynau the Aus- 
trian woman whipper. No my brethren, nothing but the 
brewers of London, or a Hungarian sabre, could make an im- 
pression upon the feelings of such a wretch. 

" You may as well go stand upon the beach, 
And bid the main flood bate his usual height ; 
You may as well use question with the wolf, 
VVhy he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb; 
You may as well forbid the movmtain pines 
To wag their high tops and to make no noise, 
When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven ; 
You may as well do any thing most hard, 
As seek to soften that (than which what's harder) ? 
A (y rant's heart! " 

But I am told of the sanctity of human life — the horrors 
of the battle field of Inkerman and the Alma; and especially,; 
the awfulness of death. Brethren, I cannot enter into the 
feelings of those who place so high a value upon Ufey in the 
common acceptation of that term. Why, what is life ? Is it 
the heaving of the lungs — the coursing of the blood through 
the veins — the privilege of locomotion — the eating and sleep- 
ing ? No. This is simply vegetating, and the brutes enjoy as 
much. This is not the life it is so great a crime to take. But, 
it is a consciousness that I am free to do the will of God, and 
to seek my own happiness ; that no man, no angel, no devil dare 
stand between me and my God — a feeling, that although I am 
iveak and poor, I still belong to the brotherhood of man, and 
stand upon the platform of equality with the strongest and the 
jichest. He lives, who enjoys the right to commune with the 
•Creator in the works of his hands, and the ordinances of hi& 
•<Gospel, and to obey those laws which are written on the tab- 
let of every man's heart, as well as on the two tables of stone* 



14 

Andl death, niy brethren, is not the dissolution of the soul and 
body. There are many evils in the world now endured by 
men, that are greater far than this, and for which this kind of 
death is ordained as a relief. The martyrs of truth in all ages 
ihave shown, that death in this sense, is infinitely preferable to 
a life of such privations as they suffered. To hinder the de- 
Yelopment of the faculties — to put out the eye of the soul — to 
smother the aspirations of hope — to crush the free spirit — to 
dog the victim through the world by the minions and inquisi- 
tors of power, and be eternally conscious that you are a slave 
— this is harder to endure than death. He is a craven coward 
who is afraid to die ; but the Scripture says, that oppression 
will make even a wise man mad. 

Now the people of Europe, taken as a mass, groaning under 
the despotisms that have so long cursed them, do not live in 
the proper sense of that term. They simply vegetate like the 
plants and the brutes. They lie like the dry bones in the val- 
ley of vision, dead ; and my ardent hope is, that when the 
great Prophet from Asia Minor, who is now in exile, shall re- 
turn to prophecy over them in the name of the Lord and of 
Liberty, the world will witness a glorious resurrection ! 

There is no fiystem of opinions and policy so revolu- 
tionary, so aggressive, and so uncompromising as the Religion 
of Jesus Christ. This is true whether we contemplate its in- 
fluence on individual or nations. When it enters the bosom 
©f a man, it proceeds like a soldier sword in hand, fighting its 
way to the citadel of the heart. It rouses up every latent pas- 
sion, and provokes into activity the enmity of the whole man ; 
and a conflict ensues, which only terminates in the victory of 
the spirit. Even after that event which makes the man a chris- 
tian, his whole life is one continued scene of combat, between 
the uncompromising claims of his religion, and the remaining 
corruptions of his heart. Similar are its effects when it ad- 
Tanoes among nations. Its Great Founder, with characteris- 
tic honesty, proclaimed in the ears of friend and foe, "I came 
Eot to bring peace on earth, but a sword." While, therefore, 
we absolve this religion from the charge of causing strife in 
Ets progress through the world, we admit that it has been the 
^EBOcent oceasion of vast turmoil and confusion. Had it been 
in early times, the meek, innocent and contemptible thing it 
ihas become in our day, its history never would have been writ- 



15 

teii) as it is, in the blood of its martyrs. But it went amoc^ 
the idolaters of the Roman Empire saying, " Thou shalt wor- 
ship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." It 
frowned upon tyranny and oppression of all kinds, and warned 
the oppressor of his doom. It taught the people that civil gov- 
ernment was an ordinance of God, and that the civil magistrate 
was " the minister of God, for cfood " to the people. And it 
left the people to draw the inference from these truths, that 
when a government does not promote the good of the people^ 
but their harm ; then the people have an inherent right, in the 
name and by the authority of God, to alter or abolish the gov- 
ernment, and set up one that shall accomplish the end for which 
it was ordained. "Why was it that the late Emperor Alexander of 
Russia forbid the existence of a Bible Society in St. Petersburg? 
Because an open Bible in the hands of his subjects, was s 
thousand times more dangerous to his throne, than an inva- 
ding army of half a million of men! Why was it that Louis 
XIV. revoked the edict of Nantes, which was proclaimed by 
his illustrious grandfather, and gave liberty of conscience to 
the Protestants of his realm ? Because the Huguenots were 
Reformers, and he perceived that republican sentiments were 
part of the warp and woof of their theological system, and that 
they would never rest till these principles were embodied in a 
free government. 

Christianity is a stranger to the Parthian method of warfare 
— its policy is aggressive. And it is an interesting fact, bear- 
ing with mountain weight in the decision of the question of non- 
resistance, that all the rights and privileges we enjoy, whether 
as christians or citizens, have come down to us sprinkled with 
the blood of those who contended for them, even unto death. 
Our open bibles — the right of private judgment — the habeas 
corpus — the trial by jury— in short, all our liberties, have been 
the result of bloody and successful resistance. The grand cen- 
tral doctrine of our religion is, that "without the shedding of 
blood, there is no remission " of sin. And so it would appear to 
be the order of Providence, as developed on the page of history, 
that man can have nothing truly valuable, unless it has been 
purchased by agony and blood. Despotism has forced upon 
humanity the terrible alternative, either of submitting to it* 
diabolical claiir.s and thus deny God, or of Fecuripg ita rights 
by mingling the blood of the oppressor and the oppressed. 



16 

And I hesitate not to say, that had the principles of non-re» 
sistance prevailed through the world during the last three cen- 
turies, and shaped the policy of christian men, the Pope and 
the Absolute Monarch, would now be seated upon the throne of 
universal and undisputed empire ! It seems to me, therefore, 
to savor of ingratitude, in us who enjoy the rich legacy of 
freedom, handed down by the great and the good of past gen- 
erations, to condemn as anti-Christian the heroism of doing 
and suflfering by which alone it could have been procured. Is 
is cruel in these piping times of peace, when every man among 
us sits under his own vine and fig tree, to launch out our anath- 
emas upon the glorious dead, for whose blood the Almighty ia 
now about to make inquisition among the nations of the Earth. 

We are satisfied then that the Little Stone, interpreted by 
Daniel to mean the kingdom of God, is Christianity, in ita 
bearings upon the affairs of civil government. We are satis^ 
fied also, that if despotism will not unclench its grasp at the 
throat of humanity — if it will not take its heel from the necka 
of its victims — if it utterly refuses, like Pharaoh of old, to let 
the people go that they may serve God, we must either repu- 
diate the Prophet, or allow an appeal to arms. Give us then 
a Commander like Cromwell, and an army of 100,000 men 
like those he led to the field at Dunbar or at Worcester — men 
who believe that the time has come, and that they are com* 
missioned by Heaven to do execution upon the despotisms of 
the world, and what in the shape of men or devils could stand 
before them ? Land such an army on the shores of Western 
Europe, and it would move like a hurricane from Paris to St- 
Petersburg and down to Constantinople I Ic would be n^i 
marauding army, such as armies are in general, bent upon 
plunder and the shedding of blood. It would be the dread 
executor of the wrath of an offended God upon the thrones 
that have so long cursed the world and bid defiance to both 
Heaven and Earth. 

Such an army of men, with the' love of t'Ir.d and of Liberty 
animating their hearts, and believing that they were a besom 
in the hands of the Almighty to sweep Europe clear of its des- 
potisms, would l)f iiu'iiiciblo on land or water. And might we 
not hope, that tlie victories of such an army would be compar- 
atively bloodless? For the people of Europe would flock to 
its standard. The armies of the despots would desert by re- 



gimcnts and leave aoiie but infatuated reprobates to be put t® 
the sword. 

And may not the finger of Providence be now pointing oat 
to the down-trodden nations, the man chosen by God to lead[ 
such an army ? Did not the Lord send him to the prisons oC 
Austria to learn the English language, and thus open to hiiHi 
the door to a knowledge of English liistory, English law, En- 
glish literature and English institutions ? Did not the Lord 
then send him to Asia Minor, as he did Moses to the land oF 
Midian, to prepare him for his great work ? And did not the 
Lord commit the people of the United States to his cause by 
sending a Government vessel to bring him from the land of 
his exile, under the protection of our flag, and enabling hira 
as the guest of the Nation, to see with his own eyes, what 
Bepublican Institutions had done in developing the resources 
of this country ? Kossuth is the Cromwell of our day ! He 
is the Christian Hero and Statesman, and the only one of emi- 
nence now upon the stage. He has studied the page of pro- 
phecy and has faith in God, in truth and humanity. He asksB 
in the name of Heaven, what Cromwell asked and what we ask, 
that the authority of Almighty God shall be paramount in that 
affairs of human governme-ats — that the law of God shall be 
elevated to the dignity of the law of nations — that Christianity 
as a power on Earth, shall control the policy of 'nations, fo- 
reign and domestic — that the people of every nation through 
agents of their own choice, shall manage their own affairs in 
their own way. This is the reason why his very name is mu- 
sic in the ears of the oppressed of all lands ; and why one con- 
stant stream of prayer rises from the crushed hearts of the 
down-trodden, that God would shelter him from the stroke of 
the assassins who are thirsting for his blood, and make him sa 
instrument to bring relief to Humanity. 

No living man occupies so proud a position before the worl«l 
to day as does Louis Kossuth ! To be sure he is still an cxil® 
and poor ; and with thousands of men the adventitious circum- 
stance of misfortune is the same as crime. But long ago, 
with a sagacity which to many seems prophetic, in the face of 
the statesmen and diplomatists of both England and France^ 
he predicted the history of the Crimean war up to this moment. 
Long ago he told the Allied powers, that Russia, like Achillesr, 
was vulnerable only in one point, and that was by the re-eoa^ 



18 

struction of Poland — that an alliance with perfidious AuL'tria 
would be fatal to their success — that the only hope of ham- 
bling the power of the Czir, depended upon the reviving of 
oppressed Hungary and Italy and the other nations struggling 
for their rights. Now after the loss of hundreds of millions of 
treasure and thousands upon thousands of lives in the siege of 
Sebastopol, which if successful would amount to nothing worth, 
its cost, it is intimated in the high places of influence that 
Kossuth's line of policy must be adopted ! Were the affairs 
of Europe ever before in so complicated a state ? England, 
in close alliance with France and a quasi alliance with the per- 
jured House of Austria, to preserve the balance of power in 
Europe by preventing the seizure of Constantinople by Rus- 
sia! God's retributive judgments overtake nations as well aa 
men in this world ; and England seems to be delivered up to 
shame and loss, for her great crime in allowing the destruc- 
tion of Polish nationality in the last century, and the downfall 
of Hungarian liberty in this. Had she, when the tide of rev- 
olution rose in 1848, headed the European people in a strug- 
gle against their despots, France which \^as then Republican, 
would have co-operated, and liy this time Europe might have 
been revolutionized. One word of assurance to Kossuth and 
Mazzini, by England and France, that Russia should not inter- 
fere in the struggle then pending, was all that was needed t') 
success. But that word was not spoken. And now Hungary 
is in chains, and the blood of her martyrs unites with the voice 
of her exiles in every land, in calling for vengeance ! France, 
by a league between Louis Napoleon and the Romish priest- 
hood, is now a despotism, as grasping and as absolute aa that 
of the Czar. The Hapsburgs are in power in Austria. Italian 
liberty has been put to death bj French bayonets and the 
Popish Inquisition, and Mazzini wanders we know not where. 
Kossuth is in exile in England, and English statesmen are too 
proud or too stupid to listen to his wisdom, and take his advice 
in the present emergency. But let us not despair. The word 
of the Lord endureth forever. If the glorious prospects of 
1848 could be clouded in so short a time, the darkness of 1855 
may be dissipated and give place to the dawn of that daj 
which will surely come. The great Hungarian is girding hia 
loins. He is studying the sure word of prophecy and seek- 
ing counsel from the God of Daniel, and will be ready for his 



19 

future wLen his future comes. By that time, we as a nation, 
will be prepared to take our place in the great programme of 
events yei to be fulfilled on the theatre of the Old World. 

Thus am I led directly to the inquiry, whether the United 
States of America, which Isaiah is supposed to have seen in 
tision 2500 years ago, when he hailed its natal day by saying, 
■" Wo to the land shadowing with wings," has no part to act in 
the great struggle for liberty now beginning in E'jirope? A 
few years since, when the attention of our people was called to 
this subject by the Eastern prophet who visited our shores, 
the excitement produced by his unrivalled eloquence unfitted 
"as for sober julgment. But that excitement has died away, 
and we are now able calmly to enquire, whether, since the 
Atlantic Ucean hus been reduced by steam navigation to a 
feriy^ we have not as a nation great duties to perform in car- 
rying out, by active iutervention, the principles of our Itovo- 
"itttionary stiuggle iu their application to other countries — 
■whether we can, without national guilt and retribution, pass 
fey like the Piie&t and the Levite, the humanity of Europe 
robbed and peeled and plundered by its tyrants ? whether like 
a,li things else, we have not a mission and a destiny, to spread 
liepublican Institutions over both continents, by lending a 
iielping hand to every nation struggling for its rights? 

Towards the solution of the question whether we have not 
as a people a Trans-Atlantic mission, behold our wondrous 
history. 

Four hundred years ago, and America was unknowu to the 
whole civilized world I Three hundred years ago, and the ter- 
ritory of the U. S. now containijig a population of twenty-five 
millions, was one vast unbroken forest, the common home of 
the M'ild beast and his savage hunter I Two hundred years 
ago, and darkness stiil brooded over this mighty Cjutinent, 
with the exception of a fo'W watch fires that had been kindled 
lip by our persecuted ancestors on the Atlantic coast ! One 
"hundred 3 ears ago, and the civiliz itiou of this country was con- 
fined to a narrow belt that skirted our Eastern shore, and an 
unimportant settlemeut of Europeans in the Sjuth 'A'e^t. As 
to the extensive tracts lying West of the Alleghenies, and 
Btretjhing fir away beneath tae setting sun, nought was h<?ard 
JDQt the war whoop of the ludiau, and tne wild winds of neavett 
careering through their illimitable forests. To daj^ this na- 



20 

%iou 33 the equal of Franco and England, eighteen hundred 
je&TZ old ! 

Behold our commercial enterprise. There is hardly a stream 
aipon the footstool which pays the tribute of its waters to the 
©cean, but is whitened by American canvass, bearing onwards 
to foreign climes the products of American industry and Ame- 
rican skill. 

BeliOid the intelligence of our people. While I mourn that 
15 is not a thousand fold greater, as it must and will be, it is 
conceded that as a People, we are better educated than those 
of any other nation'on the Earth. TheJournals of the single 
State of New York, exceed in number, those of all the rest 
of the world beyond the limits of the Union ; and the newspa* 
per circulation of the city of New York alone, is equal to that 
of the whole Empire of Great Britain ! The credit of all this 
as due to our noble institution of Common Schools, which on 
the great principle that the property of the State shall school 
the children of the State, confers the blessings of education 
upon all alike. 

Behold the {xmdiAmaniBX principle of our Government. Our 
English ancestors, in contending for liberty, took their stand 
not on a general theory, but on the particular constitution of 
the realm. They asserted the rights, Tiot of men, but of Eng- 
lishmen. That was their work and well they did it, and well 
it stands. Their doctrine was not amtagious. But en the 
4th day of July, 1776, our fathers enunciated in the ears of 
an astonished world, the great scriptural and seif-evident truth, 
*' that all men were created equal, and endowed by their Cre- 
ator with the inalienable right of Life, Liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness ; " that to secure these ends Governments 
are instituted among men, and that whenever any Government 
fails to accomplish such en<l, the people have the inherent right 
to alter, abolish, or amend it at their will. Here is the prac- 
tical application of Luther's doctrine of the inalienable right 
of private judgment — the individualization of man — that eve- 
j"y man is a man, fully invested with his rights and counts one 
among the brotherhood. The Republic of North America is 
the child of the Protestant Refurmation. Luther discovered 
the doctrine of human rights in the Bible, and applied it to the 
subject of religion, and thu.s the church became free. Our 
fathers took it from his hands and applied it to the subject of 



21 

GoTernmsnt, and the Eepubiic of the United States is their 
liandiwork. 

I ask your particular attention to the fact, that the found- 
ers of this Government made their immortal Declaration in the 
name of humanity ; and by the very terms of the document, 
were bound to espouse the cause of humanity \?herever jeop- 
arded by the encroachments of arbitrary power. In thespirifc 
of this Declaration, our statesmen advocated the cause of the 
Greeks in their struggle against the Turks, and the cause of 
the South American Republics against Spain. I know that 
the lynx-eyed sentinels who hold the keys to the Southern 
Prison House, together with the small province of Hunker- 
dom which they own in the North, cry out loudly and long 
against the humane and christian policy of intervention in the 
affairs of Europe. They quote the authority of Washington in 
behalf of their narrow and selfish views. Bat had a crusade 
been preached against Mexico, or Cuba, or Hayti, for the pur- 
pose 01 increasing the extent of slave territory^ the Farewell 
Advice of the Father of his Country might have slumbered on 
with his bones, unheeded. But if the nation at its birth did 
BOt espouse in good faith the cause of mankind, and if it ig . 
Eot committed to that cause now that it has power and influence 
on the earth, go alter the immortal sentence, if the lightnings 
©f heaven don't scathe ye in the attempt, and make it read 
thus: "We hold this truth to be self evident, that d\\ free, 
white Americans are equal !" You kindle with indignation at 
the thought. As long then as the Declaration stands unshorn 
of its glory, the nations of the Old world or the New, in their 
struggles for liberty, have a right to ask and expect our sym- 
pathy and co-operation. 

Contemplate the motive power of our political system. It 
is the scriptural doctrine of rejjresentation — the legal identity 
or oneness, between the constituent and the representative. 
"We take it for granted as the will_^of God that in the State as 
"well as the church shall govern themselves. Bat a pure Demo- 
cracy is a sheer impossibility in the nature of things. Is there 
not therefore, some method of collecting and expressinp' the 
public sentiment so as to avoid blind mobocracy on the one 
side, and the despotism of a single man on the other? Is 
there not a principle on which a nation can speak and act in 
Us relations to its own, and other people? This desiJeratuaa i^ 



-D^; 



22 

found in the religious, commerdal and political principle cal- 
led representation. Montesquieu, in hia "Spirit of Laws," 
Bays, that a Republic must be confined to small territorial 
limits so as to avoid a diversity of interests among the people. 
But he had not measured the capabilities of the principle of 
Representation. He had not seen thirty-one independent 
severeignties, reaching from the cold regions of the North to 
the warm latitudes of the South, and from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, leagued together by virtue of this principle into one 
nationality ! This peculiarity adapts the republic to universal 
expansion. We now govern California and Oregon. With as 
little friction to our political machinery we could govern France 
and England and Austria, if their people were homogeneous 
and republican. With favorable conditions this Government 
is adapted to universal empire ! 

Behold our National Constitution^ how well balanced in its 
provisions and proportions, and how admirably adapted to se- 
cure the end for which it proclaims itself to be a mere expedient 
— the establishment of Justice, and the securing the blessings 
ti Liberty to all who dwell upon the soil ! It is alleged against 
this remarkable document, that the name of God does not occur 
in it, nor the name of the Son of God as Mediator and King of 
Nations. But is not the thing itself there ? Do not the prin- 
ciples of the Constitution do homage to God, by acknowledging 
the rights of Humanity, and removing out of the way everj 
obstacle which stands between Man and his Maker? Have we 
forgotten that the Stuarts signed the Solemn League and Cove- 
nant, and then put to death their fellow signers who were not 
hypocrites like themselves? If we have in the Constitution the 
real material thing itself — obedience to the will of God in car- 
rying out the Divine idea concerning man and his relations to 
the civil magistracy as the ordinance of God, may we not dis- 
pense with an empty mockery of form without substance? 

Behold the tide of immigration to our shores from all parts 
of the Old world — a phenomenon unprecedented in the histo- 
ry of our race — a movement, which like the ocean's wave, bids 
defiance to all huiuan legislation either here or elsewhere. Has 
Providence nothing to do with all this? Has he not sent these 
people to us for ;he double purpose of trying the adaptations 
of our Government, and going to school under our institutions, . 
that they may be fitted for future service? In the spirit of 

LofC. 



2o 



true Americanism, we meet these people as they land on tka 
"beach, and extend to them a brother's hand and a cordial wel- 
come to share with us in due time the rich inheritance bequeath- 
ed by our fathers. We give them an injunction and a warn- 
ing. We enjoin them to leave behind among the Nations that 
oppressed and drove them out, all the principles, notions and 
prejudices engendered by kingcraft and priestcraft, and to em- 
brace the institutions of their adopted country, with clean 
hands and honest hearts. And as for the Jesuits and their wil- 
ling tools, we warn them, that if they are ever found as the 
agents and emissaries of a Foreign Prince plotting against this 
Government, we will march them out of the country as our 
fathers marched the Stuarts cut of Britain long ago, — to th@ 
tune of Boyne Water. 

Behold the prestige of our name. From the Esquimaux of 
the North, down to the South Sea Islanders, every kingdom 
and tribe, and tongue under the whole heaven, has heard of 
our name, and trembles either with joy or fear when it is pro- 
nounced. It was the strange influence of ihis name that open- 
ed the gates of Japan to our Commerce ! It was the scream 
of our Eagle in the Bay of Smyrna that made the Austriaa 
man-of-war hurry to deliver up Kosta, only an inchoate citi- 
zen of the United States. " Do you claim the rights of Amer- 
ican citizenship ?*' said Captain Ingraham to the man in chains, 
" Yes,'* was the reply. " Then you shall have them," rejoin- 
ed the Captain, and he cleared his decks for action. But before 
the expiration of the given time, and ere a portfire was light- 
ed, the cowardly " Hussar " gave up its prey I 

Here, then, we have a nation of colossal proportions, rest- 
ing' upon an arch whose two foundations are, the Rights of 
God, and the Rights of Man — a Government adapted to unli- 
mited expansion, whose express design is to establish and perpe- 
tuate the privileges of man as man — a Government avowedly at 
war with despotism in all its form?, spiritual and political. If 
this is not the "Little Stone" of Daniel the Prophet, (which I 
do not claim,) it is at least the instrumentality which that 
power may use in smiting and grinding the thrones of despot- 
ism throughout the world. Can it be that Divine Providence,^ 
after sifting the nations for a seed to serve him, sent our fa > 
thers to this western continent to set up a system of civil G^r • 
emmeDt freo from the contaminating iafluences of the oli 



24 

world, that it might wear itself out and go to pieces by the 
friction of its own parts ? Does it not look reasonable that; 
a nation of such capabilities as we possess, having awakened 
the expectations of the world, should use its power to realize 
them, and advance courageously to the discharge of those du- 
ties which no other people on earth can perform ? 

Two obstacles stand in the way of the fulfilment of such a 
destiny. 

First, the influence of the Popish Priesthood. That politico- 
religious system called Popery, is, in a double sense, at war 
with the kingdom of the "Little Stone." Eome is the centre 
of its power, and its territory in Italy, denominated " the 
States of the Church," is a part of the Image. As a system, 
it is also the embodiment of a despotism which lerds it over 
the soul and conscience of its victims. It is confederate 
with the crowned heads of Europe, against the cause of human 
liberty, and with them must bite the dust, and go down into 
the gx-ave. The Priesthood cf the United States are part and 
parcel of the European system. They are of European ori- 
gin and character, and are laboring with a single eye to bring 
about a European state of things in this country. If there 
was the remotest affinity between Popery and Republicanism, 
why did the revolution of 1848 fail? The power of the 
Priesthood was omnipotent in Italy and Austria — why did 
they not advocate the rights of the people against their op- 
pressors ? Instead of this, the Pope himself is an absolute 
despot, denying the liberty of conscience and the prpss to his 
subjects, and holding the key to the dungeons of the Inquisi- 
tion, as terrible to-day as it ever was. Men may delude them- 
selves as they will, but unless all history is a lie, and all phi- 
losophy folly, the Popish Priesthood are every where, in Eu- 
rope and America, necessarily and inevitably the foe of Re- 
publican Institutions. And hence it was that when the great 
Hungarian was sent to invite this nation to the performance 
of its mission in Europe, he met a deadly enemy in every Pa- 
pal emmissary from the Arch Bishop of New York, down to 
the Austrian or Portuguese Priest, who mumbles over his La- 
tin prayers in the ears of an American audience. However, 
that system is dead at the heart. It has life only in the ex- 
tremities. It flourishes in Protestant England and in the 
United States ! The breat-h of the Pope is in the nostrils o£ 



25 

Louis Napoleon. Let the French Regiments at Rome be witlt* 
drawn, and in thirty days the Pope and his Cardinals would 
be bung up to the cross of St. Peters by the Italian people 5 
We entertain the hope too, that this power which so lately con,- 
trolled the politics of this nation, is knocked on the head by 
the revolution of the last year ; and that being forewarned, w* 
are forearmed against the cunning craftiness by which it lies iit 
wait to deceive. The country will not soon again relapse ia- 
to slumber. With the religion of Popery we have nothing to 
do. Let its votaries be protected in the enjoyment of their 
rights as the Protestants are. But as a political system, re- 
cognizing the Pope as God's Vicegerent, and entitled to th& 
Temporal as well as the Spiritual sword, we war against it *a 
the death ! 

Secondly, the Slave power stands in the way of this natioa 
fulfilling its mission. 

By this term I mean the religious, social and political influ- 
ence of 200,000 persons in the United States, who are allied; 
in principle and sympathy with the despotisms of Europe- 
This oligarchy, so contemptible in numbers, when compared 
with the population of the whole country, sided with the Po- 
pish priesthood in the United States, in treating Kossuth with 
cold scorn. In 1848 they sympathized with Francis Joseph, 
and Nicholas and Haynau and the Grand Duke of Tuscany — 
all oppressors together. It is the wonder of wonders how thia 
handful of men can control a nation where the majority go vcrng^ 
And yet they do it. Wc, who would scorn a European yokej^ 
and spili every drop of blood in our veins, in resisting the im- 
position of a foreign chain, have yet a Master. It shapes the- 
foreign and domestic policy of the Government. It puts a. 
padlock on the lips of the Christian ministry, and reduces thee 
Church to the condition of a handmaid. It has divorced hu- 
manity from religion, and by offering to the people a stone 
when they ask bread, is spreading infidelity and atheism all 
over the land. The solemn covenant made by our fathers^ 
guarding the territories of the Union against the curse of hu- 
man bondage, is broken up ; and when free laborers under the 
disadvantages of a strange doctrine, emigrate to those territo- 
ries to find a home, reckless and unprincipled men trample 
their rights into the dust. And such a mere tool is the pre- 
sent Administration of the Government in the hands of thi» 

c 



28 

oligarchy, that these outrages go unrebuked and unavenged. 
Our representatives in Europe, instead of cherishing the grand 
object of our Revolutionary struggle, hold a Conference and 
lay plans to steal the Island of Cuba from Spain, for the very 
purpose of adding it as another Slave State to the Union. 
These, and other soul harrowing facts which might be men- 
tioned, create an anomalous state of things, and allow the 
despots of Europe to laugh to scorn the realization of oar hopes 
for our country's future. And yet we have an abiding faith, 
that these things shall not be always. The tide in our publis 
affairs has at length turned and we see signs of reaction. The 
American people must yet abolish American Slavery, and put 
their Government actively and positively on the side of liber- 
ty. We must repudiate the idea, that the Nation in the exer- 
cise of its sovereign power, cannot abate a national nuisance. 
If a City, a Commonwealth, or the Nation of Commonwealths, 
hjive a right to enact quarantine laws to preserve the public 
health, to the destruction of commerce and capital, why may 
not the nation take the scalpel and dissect away from the 
body politic that ccneuming cancer vrhich is fast eating into 
its vitals and must cause death? It is alleged that the Constitu- 
tion is a pro-slavery document, containing a guaranty for the 
continuance of the evil we complain of. So were the Consti- 
tution and laws of England declared to be, both by Judges and 
people, up to the year 1772, when Lord MansQeldgave his im- 
mortal decision in the case of Somerset. Give us the public 
sentiment, and we will furnish a Congress that will find power 
in the Constitution to destroy this national curse. And in case 
death is tardy in overtaking the Yorkes and Talbots and 
Jeffreys of the present Bench of the Supreme Court, such a 
Congress could increase the number of Judges, so that a de- 
cision could be had declaring the institution of Slavery in- 
compatible with the provisions of the Constitution and there- 
fore null and void. There are Man&fields ready to give the 
decision as soon as an enlightened and huoiane public senti- 
ment shall deraand it. 

Yoa perceive, bretl ren, that I fay nothing of a dissola- 
tion of the confederacy, as a means of abolishing slavery. — 
I enter not into the plans of those who would destroy the 
Union, cemented together by the blood and tears of our 
fathers. Great as the evil of slavery is, and deep as is the 



27 

humiliation of tbe Nortli, the (lifSo''ution of the Union 
would bo a greater misfortune to humanity. There is no dan- 
ger of the South ever taking steps towards such a crisis, and 
there never was any danger. It was always a bugbear, which 
their sagacity and boldness enabled them to use, to alarm the 
North and carry their own ends in the Legislature of the Na- 
tion. Valuable as the Union is to all, it is infinitely more valu- 
able to them than to us, and well they know and feel it. But 
such has been the relentless despotism of the Slave Power over 
the rights and honor oi the North, that many of our people 
and some leading journals, advocate a separation. Let us re" 
member, however, that the contest now waging is not between, 
the Northern people and the Southern people, but between a 
handful of slaveholders in the North and South on the one 
hand, and all the rest of the people of the United States on 
the other — two hundred thousand men, women and children 
against twenty millions ! The non-slaveholders of the South 
constituting the overwhelming majority of the population, are 
degraded and oppressed next to the slaves themselves, and have 
a deep stake in the issue of the contest. If the Union were 
dissolved by a geographical line, these millions of our fellow- 
citizens can have no hope, but will suffer on with the slaves till 
the judgments of Heaven descend upon their oppressors, and 
make their land another Egypt. But let the adulterous union 
between the Slave Power and the Government be dissolved. 
Let the nation throw from its bosom the mighty incubus which 
site as a nightmare upon it. Let Christianity become a reality 
instead of a sham — a power, influencing the conscience and 
shaping the opinions of men, and the work is done. We 
cherish the fond hope and firm^belief that this nation ia to be 
•ne and indivisible. The Alleghenies and the Mississippi both 
throw themselves in the way of disunion, and proclaim that the 
God of Nature never intended' it ! Instead, therefore, of con. 
tending for an impossibility, let the majority of the people 
firmly and affectionately declare that slavery shall exist no 
k>nger, and our slaveholding brethren will bow before the de- 
tree, and take measures for its execution. They know it is a 
national disgrace, and a source of national weakness, totally 
linoonfiistcnt with republicanism, and directly at war with the 
eiaims of the Christian religion. With such convictions on the 
jftftrt of those immediately implicated, let the twenty millions 



28 

«f fre3 people in the Nortli and South decree, in the name of 
^od, and through the Congress of the nation, that slavery 
shall forever cease to exist on a given day, and the arrival of 
4he time would see God honored, and the nation saved I 

The bell which hung in the tower of the old State House at 
Philadelphia, and rang forth its peals when the Declaration of 
Independence was adopted, had engraved upon it this appro- 
priate motto — "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, 
CNTO all the inhabitants THEREOF." But when, at the close 
t)f our Revolutionary struggle, and the adoption of our Con- 
stitution, its tones mocked the hopes of the enslaved, the Geniua 
•©f Liberty, disgusted and angered at our inconsistency, struck 
it, and from that day it has been dumb. But it is still pre" 
Served with pious care in the Hall of Independence, amidst 
«ther glorious relics of the past, ready for the good time 
coming. It must be re-cast and replaced where it hung seventy- 
nine years ago, when it ushered in the birth of the nation ! It 
mnst peal forth another anthem of joy, and thus obey the di- 
Tine command in its inscription, by announcing the event for 
"which we have so long labored and suffered — the breaking of 
«?ery yoke, and the setting of every oppressed one free ! 

And now, brethren, from the indications of the Prophet, and 
the existing state of things in Europe and America, you can 
form a judgment as to where we are in point of time, and 
where we are as a people on the field of prophecy ; and what 
xelations we sustain to that part of Europe covered by the 
image of Nebuchadnezzar. The present war in the East is 
probably the beginning of that terrible dispensation of doing 
and suffering which is to end in the complete destruction of 
Kings and Kingdoms — the downfall of the Ottoman Power, 
the total subversion of the Papacy, and the recall of the Jews 
to their native land. In these interesting events, brought to 
f)UT very doors by the steam navigation of the Atlantic, the 
United States must take a part, or else the world will observe 
the anomaly of a great instrumentality brought into existence 
for no adequate and worthy purpose. To accomplish our mis. 
«ion on that august theatre, we must be disentangled from 
^oper9/ and Slavery^ two systems of despotism as absolute and 
as heartless as any represented by the symbol of the Image. 
When our country, thus regenerated and disenthralled, shall 
iiave risen in its grandeur, and lifted up its voice of authority 



29 

unci power among tihe nations, — "when the thrones of Europe 
shall have given way to Presidential Chairs, and the voice of 
the Monarch be hushed in the voice of the People, which ifif 
fche voice of God — then the Seventh Angel will sound, and 
great voices in heaven shall proclaim, "the Kingdoms of this 
world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Chriat? 
and he shall reign forever and ever!" 

Oh scenes surpassing fable, and yet true ; 
Scenes of accomplished bliss ! which who can see. 
The' but in distant prospect, and not feel 
His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy? 

****** 
One song employs all nations. 
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks 
Shout to each other, and the mountain tops 
Prom distant mountains catch the flying joy, 
Till, nation after nation taught the strain, 
Earth rolls the rapturous hosannahs round I 



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